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AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

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Re: AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

#83
post #76

The real question for me with all these AMD releases, what's Intel gonna release? It's surprising to me that Apple didn't announce an AMD based Mac Pro-- the chip Intel gave them must really be something. Too bad though because there could be a lot more of them (eventual Mac Pros) out there I'm guessing if they were using these Rome chips.

Apple is very invested in Thunderbolt 3 which AMD chips can't provide.

Can’t is too strong, individual hackers have mixed the two. I’m sure Apple could make it work.

Re: AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

#84
post #54
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are three tapeouts used for the entire desktop, HEDT, and server lineup combined. Everything uses the same 8 core CPU dies and there are two different I/O dies- a smaller one used for desktop (which doubles as the X570 chipset) and a big one for HEDT/server. There's also a separate 4 core + GPU die used for laptop parts.

This is correct for desktop and server. However, AMD hasn't said anything about the HEDT I/O die yet, as far as I know. Assuming Zen 2-based Threadripper will still have quad channel memory and 64 PCIe lanes, AMD might go for a medium sized I/O die instead of disabling half of the large server I/O die. Or maybe the Threadripper volume is too low and a separate tapeout is not worth it.

This is true that they haven't actually confirmed that Threadripper is using the EPYC I/O die but I would be very surprised if it isn't. The entire idea behind Threadripper was to reuse as much EPYC tech as possible (in particular the physical socket) to keep NRE costs low because the HEDT market is so small.

Re: AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

#85

The real question for me with all these AMD releases, what's Intel gonna release? It's surprising to me that Apple didn't announce an AMD based Mac Pro-- the chip Intel gave them must really be something. Too bad though because there could be a lot more of them (eventual Mac Pros) out there I'm guessing if they were using these Rome chips.

There's probably bit of hardware lot it with Intel chips. Since they control the hardware, Apple probably has invested quite a bit into hardware specific optimizations that won't readily port to AMD chipsets. Also, AMD is only recently been a performance front runner - they might not hold on to that for long. In the short term it doesn't make sense to jump ship. For for general computation/ecosystems or for generatio…

Intel hasn't manufacturered bespoke chips for some years now, which is why all, but one, mainstream consoles have been AMD.

Re: AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

#86
post #76

The real question for me with all these AMD releases, what's Intel gonna release? It's surprising to me that Apple didn't announce an AMD based Mac Pro-- the chip Intel gave them must really be something. Too bad though because there could be a lot more of them (eventual Mac Pros) out there I'm guessing if they were using these Rome chips.

Apple is very invested in Thunderbolt 3 which AMD chips can't provide.

Isn't the newest USB standard just Thunderbolt with different name?

Re: AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

#87
post #76

The real question for me with all these AMD releases, what's Intel gonna release? It's surprising to me that Apple didn't announce an AMD based Mac Pro-- the chip Intel gave them must really be something. Too bad though because there could be a lot more of them (eventual Mac Pros) out there I'm guessing if they were using these Rome chips.

Apple is very invested in Thunderbolt 3 which AMD chips can't provide.

AMD motherboards can do TB3.

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570%20Taichi/#Specification Supports an add-in card (connector). It's coming more generally since Intel dropped the licensing fees for TB. But yeah, only a few AMD boards do it (without hacks).

Re: AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Memories of Niagara falls

These threads have a lot more heft than the ones in Sun's T series.

Still, it was probably the first processor to allow for this kind of thread count (but I may be wrong)

Re: AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

#89
post #30
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's already a 64-core Threadripper rumored for the end of this year. Top-tier Ryzen 9 should reach "only" 32 cores on the 5nm process in 2 years.

> "only" 32 cores But it might be 4-way SMP, so 128 threads...

I've seen multiple 4-way SMP rumors in comments in the last few weeks. Was there something hinted at, or a "leak" implying this might happen? I did a brief search but didn't find anything.

Re: AMD EPYC “Rome” Server Processors to Feature 8 to 64 Cores

#90
post #3

64 cores but 128 with simultaneous multithreading. And in a 2C configuration, you get 256 threads. That is a beautiful thing.

It's a good time to be a Python developer :-D

Heaviest microscope for that nail so far.
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